Walter Plunkett (June 5, 1902 in Oakland, California – March 8, 1982) was a prolific costume designer who worked on more than 150 projects throughout his career in the Hollywood film industry.Born in Oakland, California, Plunkett studied law at the University of California, where he was a member of the California-Alpha chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, but showed greater interest in the school's theatrical group. He moved to New York City in 1923 and began work as a stage actor as well as a costume and set designer. After some time in Greenwich Village, he moved back to California, this time to Hollywood, and found work as a movie extra. (He can be seen dancing with Irene, another future top designer, in Erich von Stroheim's 1925 film The Merry Widow.) He soon made a career change to costume and wardrobe.Plunkett's first credited work as a costume designer was the 1927 film Hard-Boiled Haggerty. At RKO, he developed a huge costume and wardrobe department that became a major studio asset. Given free rein, he set about creating costumes that rivaled the work of his contemporaries, such as Travis Banton and Adrian.Plunkett's best-known work is featured in two films, Gone with the Wind and Singin' in the Rain, in which he lampooned his initial style of the Roaring Twenties.In 1951, Plunkett shared an Oscar with Orry-Kelly and Irene for An American in Paris.Plunkett retired in 1966, after having worked in films, on Broadway, and for the Metropolitan Opera. He spent the last years of his life with his partner Lee, whom he formally adopted so that he could inherit his estate. He died at age 79 in Santa Monica, California.
[on working at MGM]: It was a lucky and very glorious thing for me. I was lucky that I was a part of the Hollywood movie-making era when costume designers were considered important and were allowed more money.
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Fact
1
Costume designer Walter Plunkett's concern for detail in his costumes designed for the 1939 feature film - "Gone With The Wind" - may never be explained. Ralph Siegel, a design-department lead instructor at the California College of Arts and Crafts Design Schoo, (located in Berkeley-Oakland) in the '50s, had worked in Walter Plunkett's Selznick Studios costume-wardrobe department during the costume preparation for this feature film; Ralph's employment was as an artist, designer, and costumer, whose sole job was to prepare every undergarment worn by the female and male performers. Each and every female costume was accurately outfitted with petticoats; each painted with watercolor dye patterns and designs in the style and vogue of the mid 1840-50s. Filming never captured the details of any of the costumes constructed for this film. Walter Plunkett researched the wardrobe fashions and minute undergarment details of the styles existing before the Civil War ante-bellum 1845-47 era - male and female garment requirements insisting every costume be complete in detail, even for the background film extras.
2
According to the book "David O. Selznick's Hollywood" by film historian Ron Haver, he worked uncredited on King Kong (1933). He designed the "Beauty and the Beast" costume that Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) wears while Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) cranks a camera and films a screen test of her onboard the ship before they land at Skull Island.
3
The budget of Singin' in the Rain (1952) soared to $2,540,800, of which $157,000 went to his elaborate costumes. Although the final price overshot MGM's budget by $665,000, the studio quickly realized the wisdom of its investment when the film returned a $7.7 million profit upon its initial release.